Liam’s at Stoke for four more years

Liam Lawrence has signed a new four year contract which will keep him at the Brit until 2013.

The midfielder had made it clear in the past few weeks that he wanted a new contract even though he current deal didn’t expire until next summer and despite the usual media mutterings about what might happen if he didn’t get one, it was always unlikely that the club and player would not be able to come to some sort of agreement.

Everything seems to be coming up rosy for Lawrence at the moment after he also earned his first full international cap in the summer for the Republic of Ireland.

He’s the fourth player to agree new contracts in the past couple of weeks with Andy Wilkinson and Salif Diao signing new deals and Rory Delap agreeing a one year extension to his current contract.

The first team squad have now flown to Austria for a one week training camp, where they can finally get down to some serious pre-season training and try to banish memories of those embarrassing defeats against Newcastle Town and Nantwich Town last Sunday afternoon.